Last week 02 – 04 July 2025., the final event of MSP4BIO took place in Venice, generously hosted by CNR-ISMAR Institute of Marine Sciences in synergy with the MEDIGREEN and NESBp workshops.
This three-day event brings together a rich community of project partners, policymakers, marine planners, MPA managers, Communities of Practice, and sister project representatives to reflect on biodiversity mainstreaming in Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), for discussion and validation of project results, interactive sessions on their exploitation and upscale, with keynote speeches, and hands-on workshops. The event run alongside MEDIGREEN’s internal workshop and NESBp Multi-Use workshop on Maripark scenario building, offering extensive opportunities for cross project dialogue and networking against the unique backdrop of Venice’s historic Arsenale.
Showcasing the results in the six MSP4BIO test site session was led by Margarita Stancheva (CCMS), as coordinating the development of site-specific planning solutions supported by the application of the MSP4BIO integrated Ecological an Socio-Economic Framework (ESE) and the cutting-edge Decision Support Tools (DSTs).
Hristo Stanchev presented the testing results from the Bulgarian part of the Black Sea test site. During the Session 3, Validation workshop, Margarita Stancheva convened the interactive session, dialed with the uptake and transferability of test site results and final recommendations for their scaling up tailored to each sea basin in MSP4BIO: the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
Follow the Key outcomes of MSP4BIO on the project website:
• The Ecological-Socio-Economic (ESE) Management Framework (online + document)
• ESE modules: Ecological Toolkit, Socio-economic criteria, Trade-off methodology
• Synthesis of key policy barriers and joint solutions
• Joint policy recommendations across projects
• Site-specific solutions from ESE applications
• Recommendations for transferability and scaling up of biodiversity mainstreaming in MSP
• The MSP4BIO knowledge database
• Insights from Communities of Practice & stakeholder engagement
• The MPA/MSP integration framework